As Doctor Who's Future Remains in the Balance, Writer and Actor Mark Gatiss Says It May Be Time for the Show to 'Rest'

As questions swirl implicit the aboriginal of Doctor Who, 1 of the its astir prolific writers has suggested the bid whitethorn beryllium owed a "rest".

Almost 2 months aft the airing of Doctor Who's astir caller play finale, the BBC's flagship sci-fi amusement is inactive to beryllium recommissioned for caller episodes. The instrumentality of co-production spouse Disney remains uncertain, and a notable Doctor Who insider precocious suggested the bid volition apt present stay off-air for respective years portion accumulation sits paused.

Amid each of that, Doctor Who writer and histrion Mark Gatiss has been asked his presumption connected what mightiness beryllium adjacent for the seasoned series. In response, Gatiss referenced the epoch wherever Doctor Who was antecedently off-air for a sizeable period, betwixt 1989 and 2005, and suggested it mightiness beryllium clip for the franchise to instrumentality different break.

A person and predominant collaborator of erstwhile Doctor Who showrunner Stephen Moffat, Gatiss has written 9 episodes of the bid since its 2005 reboot, and acted successful 5 episodes.

"It's been backmost for 20 years, which is an awfully agelong time," Gatiss told Prospect magazine. "Almost arsenic agelong arsenic its archetypal run. That's beauteous spectacular. So possibly it's clip for different rest."

"I truly don't know," helium continued. "I lone cognize that I inactive emotion the amusement with each my heart."

Gatiss is 1 of the astir elder figures to remark connected the uncertain aboriginal of Doctor Who, pursuing the series' astir caller occurrence which saw the departure of prima Ncuti Gatwa via a reshot ending, and the unexplained quality of Billie Piper successful a relation that remains to beryllium confirmed.

Doctor Who writer and histrion Mark Gatiss. Image credit: Daniele Venturelli/Getty Images for Italian Global Series Festival.

Even the specified proposition that Doctor Who mightiness participate different 'dark period', specified arsenic the 16-year hiatus betwixt its Sylvester McCoy and Christopher Eccleston eras, would person antecedently seemed inconceivable. But specified is the uncertainty astir the show's aboriginal now, with nary histrion officially confirmed to clasp the series' rubric role.

Russell T Davies, Doctor Who's showrunner for its past 2 seasons, has meantime simply said that the series' makers "don't cognize what's happening yet."

In the meantime, the BBC volition plug the spread with an already-shot spin-off miniseries, The War Between The Land and The Sea, which is expected to debut successful 2026. There are besides aboriginal plans for an animated Doctor Who bid for UK children's transmission CBeebies — though with a accumulation spouse yet to beryllium found, this sounds overmuch further off.

Photo by Daniele Venturelli/Getty Images for Italian Global Series Festival

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You tin scope Tom astatine [email protected] oregon find him connected Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social